the submarine
What was the name of the actual submarine used in all the exterior filming? What were it's actual dimensions compared to real USN nuclear-powered subs in 1968?
shareAfter some online searches and viewing the documentary The Man Who Makes A Difference on the DVD release of ISZ, I've learned the submarine used was the USS Ronquil (SS-396). It was a diesel-electric submarine used extensively during WWII and eventually sold to Spain, who decommissioned it in the 1980s.
http://www.ussronquil.com/
It's interesting that the USS Ronquil looks very much like the USS Nautalis, the first American nuclear submarine.
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Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference. - Mark Twain.
Of course, the reverse is actually true. At the risk of oversimplifying, the NAUTILUS (SSN 571), being several years newer, was actually patterned in appearance after submarines like the RONQUIL, the overall hull design considerations at that time being common to both. A few years later the Navy abandoned that hull form altogether with the inception of the SKIPJACK class.
Incidentally, the hull number used in the movie (509) was never actually given to a completed U.S. submarine, undoubtably the reason it was used for the fictional submarine in the film. Unfortunately, since that number precedes by a few dozen numbers the the hull number of the NAUTILUS, the world's first nuclear-powered vessel of any kind, it doesn't figure well for a nuclear submarine. In the movie ON THE BEACH this difficulty was overcome by using a future hull number, 623, the Navy having not gotten that far yet by the time that film was made. Yet it was within only a few years the Navy did reach that number in new contruction, it being assigned to the ballistic missile submarine NATHAN HALE, an old and sometimes troublesome personal friend of this writer.
Thanks very much for the information, Gatorman.
It sounds as if you served on the Nathan Hale. That must have been fantastic! I served in the Marines, and spent a brief time on the USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70). I had many Navy friends, and tried many times to get myself assigned to a submarine for a cruise, but it just never worked out. I still regret that slightly.
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Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference. - Mark Twain.
Too bad for you. It was a world apart from the surface skimmer navy, and a truly elite group of shipmates.
shareGot that right, Gatorman9! 4-1/2 years on the fast-boat Narwhal (671) and 3 years on MTS Sam Rayburn (NPTU Charleston.)
I keep getting asked what life was like on a sub but there's no way to describe it accurately. I just want to see more scenes of the engineroom. Not very well lit.
I enjoyed this movie a lot.
From what you can see, the engineering spaces were pretty unrealistic - for one thing, it never dawned on the studio art department that steam plants are covered in asbestos lagging. Of course, there WAS one tidbit that was absolutely accurate, and if you were there I don't have to tell you what it was.
shareCome on! Let us landlubbers in on the accurate part of the sub - I think it would fascinating to hear it from someone who really knows what they're talking about . . .
shareGatorman, not 100% sure what to what you were referring. Maybe the glow from the reactor compartment when the captain was showing Vaslov the reactor compartment? The "glow" was just the RC lighting showing thru the lead-lined glass which had a yellow tint to it.
At the Argonne National Laboratory, they have a fluid in some of the windows in certain "hot" areas to allow operators/technicians to see inside the rooms without being subjected to high radiation doses.
BTW, at NPTU Charleston, we used the Hale's maneuvering panels for training. When I left, it was all manually operated. I don't know if they ever computerized it to give the students a feel of how the meters and gauges would react during various bells and line-ups. That would have to wait until they got in-hull - that's when I got my hands on them!!! Too bad a good portion of my job had to do with correcting the (sometimes) insufficient training the out-hull personnel gave them.
(Sorry, just bitching)
Some pieces of the NATHAN HALE are still alive and kicking after all this time? I'm amazed . . . (but then again, stranger things have happened)
shareNot really "alive and kicking", but they were used to give students a feel of how the Maneuvering Room panels look. When I left (or rather "GTFO"!) in February '91, the EPCP, RPCP, and SPCP controls weren't connected to anything.
Again, to what were you referring about in your earlier post? Maybe the TLDs/Film Badges? Compartment air valves? No booze onboard?
I might be an ex-sailor, but I'm still a Nuke! Tell me tell me tell me!
"I gots to know." - Bad guy in "Dirty Harry"
Yaeh, I give up -- that was it. AS you know, that was depicted right on the money. And don't worry about bitching. It is a sailor's right.
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